First Families of Orangeburgh District, South Carolina

1a. JOHANNES EISENHUT was born 1 Jul 1685 in Gais, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, CH, to Hans Eisenhut, ratsherr (councilor) of Gais, and his first wife Barbara Sonderegger. Johannes died in 1742 in Carolina.[1]

Commercially published Swiss genealogies do not specifically identify this Johannes Eisenhut[2]. However, a Eisenhut family history privately published by Werner Eisenhut-Blatter in 1988 documents the family back into the 1400's in Gais, originating with Hans Eisenhut, documented in 1475 as Landvogt im Rheintal[1].

Johannes Eisenhut was surveyed a plat for 200 acres adjacent Peter Fauré on 17 Sep 1736[3]. The amount of land indicates that three others were in his household when he received his grant. These were Abraham, Anna, and Margaret Eisenhut.

1b. ANNA EISENHUT was born 22 Apr 1715 in Gais to Abraham Eisenhut (brother of Johannes) and his first wife, Anna Schläpfer. Anna was the niece of immigrant Johannes Eisenhutt and the half-sister of immigrant Abraham Eisenhut[1]. Ann Yssenhut was married to John Fairy on 5 Feb 1743[4, 5]. This John Fairy is not the founder of the modern Fairey family, but an earlier immigrant often identified as John Farree.

1c. ABRAHAM EISENHUT was born on 29 May 1720 in Gais, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, CH, to Abraham Eisenhut (brother of Johannes) and his second wife Cathrina Heim[1]. The Gais parish register shows that immigrant Abraham Eisenhut was the nephew of immigrant Johannes Eisenhut and the half-brother of immigrant Anna Eisenhut. Abraham Eisenhut died after 1778/79 in Orangeburgh, SC[2]. He married MARY DATTWYLER, daughter of MELCHIOR DATTWYLER[6,7,8]

Parish records and colonial land grants and deeds document Abraham Eisenhut as founder of the Yssenhut and Hazelwood family names in Orangeburg. As Abraham"Hazelwood" he was the father of Margaret, who married Joseph Duke and introduced the Hazelwood name to the Dukes family for many generations. Eisenhut was the common Swiss spelling.

Abraham was the nephew of John Hysenhoeds, who was surveyed a plat for 200 acres adjacent Peter Fauré on 17 Sep 1736[3]. This is confirmed by a deed. On 10 May 1751 "Abraham Husenhoods, laborer," and his wife Mary sold the land originally granted to "the uncle of said Abraham" to Henry Felder, cordwainer[9]. Similarly, it is a memorial for land sold to Henry Felder that establishes Abraham and Mary as heirs of Melchior Dattwyler[3].

Abraham Heisenwood's first petition to the Council for land in his own name, read 4 March 1747/48, indicated that his household consisted of himself and his wife, plus two children, none previously granted land. He further explained that he had been a settler in the province for 12-13 years at that time[10]. He therefore arrived in South Carolina in about 1735-36, with his uncle John. In 1748 Abraham was surveyed 200 acres bounded on the northwest by Joseph Hasfort's land, and on the southwest by John Hearn's land[11].

Petitions for subsequent grants were made citing three additional children on 4 Mar 1754[12] and four additional children on 5 Feb 1767[13]. These petitions were granted[14, 15, 16, 17]. The 1754 petition is the first occurrence of the "Hazelwood" spelling, which was used very infrequently thereafter and became standard only in the Dukes family, which commemorated Abraham in the use of the name "Hazelwood" for Dukes children for generations thereafter.

In 1778/79 Abraham Isenhood appears as one of the 29 Grand Jurors below Orangeburg[18].

Child of Abraham Eisenhut is:

a. MARGARET EISENHUT, married Joseph Dukes about 1749. Her date and place of birth are unknown. Oral tradition identifies her as a daughter of Abraham Eisenhut, and her descendants inherited land below Orangeburgh that was granted to Abraham.

The latter six children were with Mary Dattwyler. It is uncertain whether they all were. Margaret was old enough to marry in 1749; her first child was born in 1750[4, 5]. There appears to be a considerable gap between Margaret and documented children with Mary Dattwyler.

This total accounts for only seven of the nine children mentioned by Abraham in testimony to the South Carolina Council in land petitions. An Elizabeth Hazelwood is said to have married George Summers, and is certainly a child of Abraham Eisenhut. Also, a Peter Whisenhunt was a loyalist and a member of Col. John Fisher's Regiment, Orangeburgh Militia, Captain Christian House's Company, in 1780, and is another child of Abraham Eisenhut. John and Jacob "Hazelwood" were also listed in the same unit[19].